Review: Warhammer 40k Tournaments, the ITC and Imperial Armour

The following post was written by a friend of mine – Difsta – and after a brief chat, he has been kind enough to let me repost the thoughts he shares below. The whole post really resonated with me and I wanted to share that with everyone I could. Check out his own website – Victorian Miniature Gaming if you can! With me flying to Vegas for LVO tomorrow this seems like a good time to share the below! – Massaen

 

A number of people in the Victorian tournament scene for Warhammer 40k have been asking questions about the ITC, and some people have assumed knowledge and made a call on it fairly early. So today we take a look at the ITC, what it is, and how it affects a 40k Tournament

Who or What is the ITC?

To start with, here is what the Frontline Gaming crew have to say about themselves.

The ITC (Independent Tournament Circuit) is a coalition of tabletop gaming tournaments that have joined together to increase their mutual resources, exposure to the community and the prestige of their events. These events run through a season which runs one year, beginning and ending in February. The player that does the best overall through the year will be the Circuit Champion! Last year, that player won $3,000 cash! We also recognize the players that do the best with each specific faction, such as the best circuit Space Wolf Player, or best circuit Tau player, etc. as well as the best teams. The 2016 season is the third year for the ITC! The 2014 & 2015 seasons were huge hits and the ITC has now grown to be a global circuit!

Now lets take that a step further. The ITC is both a Gaming Format as well as a Ranking System. So lets take a look at those 2 concepts separately.

ITC as a Gaming Format, something a little bit different.

The ITC as a Gaming Format covers 2 key differences to “standard” Warhammer 40,000.

  1. List building restrictions
  2. Rules changes through an ITC FAQ

List Building Restrictions

 

Almost every event I have ever seen has some form of list building restrictions; whether that be number of detachments, allowing/not allowing Imperial Armour/Forgeworld units, restricting the number of Super Heavies, the list goes on. So this really isn’t anything new to pretty much anyone who has played a Warhammer 40,000 Event.

So you can find a detailed list of the list building restrictions in the ITC Tournament Format document. We won’t go through all of them, lets just take a look at some of the big ticket items.

  • Battle Forged armies only.
  • Maximum of 3 Detachments.
  • No Come the Apocalypse allies.
  • An Imperial Armour Unit Index:
    • List of Imperial Armour/Forgeworld units that are approved.
    • Where to find the rules for each of the units that have been given the OK.

So on the most part if you were to take a look at the Victorian tournament scene over the last year to 2 years, the restrictions aren’t overly different from our “norm”. The only real big difference between ITC and the majority of events in Victoria is the Imperial Armour allowance.

Is Imperial Armour really that bad anymore?

So if the only real difference in list building is the fact that ITC allow Imperial Armour, is that such a big deal? I know from my experience as both a player and a TO over the last 6-7 years I have seen 3 arguments thrown around as to why Imperial Armour shouldn’t be allowed.

  1. The rules are not so readily available, you can just walk into a Games Workshop store and read the store copies of a codex.
  2. There are multiple versions of the rules for a unit, which ones should I use.
  3. There are too many over powered units that it just isn’t fair.

Games Workshop over the last couple of years has made these arguments semi redundant. If you look at just Space Marines for a second, and think about all the various books (codex, supplement or campaign), dataslates or web exclusive formations it is crazy. They have 1 codex, 3 supplements (Clan Raukaan, Sentinels of Terra and Angels of Death), 1 campaign (War Zone Damocles), 2 active dataslates (Tyrannic War Veterans and Space Maine Strike Force Ultra) and 2 Datasheets (the Firespear Strikeforce and Space Marine HQ Command Tanks). This is just the list I am aware of, and I am sure there are more.

Did you know all of those? Could you tell me where to find them all? Can you simply have a read of these in the store? The answer to all 3 of those questions I would put money on is no.

So if they are in fact actually readily available, maybe we should look at the multiple versions argument, nope, wrong again…

Games Workshop have been consistently bringing out new books that re-print some unit entries and not others. Take a look at Space Wolves, when Games Workshop brought out the Curse of the Wulfen they seemed to “replace” the unit entry for Iron Priests… nope… Games Workshop then gave players the ok to use either or even both of these depending on what they wanted to do. They brought out a new Imperial Agents book which replaced the Inquisition codex, oh wait, you can still buy the Inquisition Codex and use either of the books. I would almost argue that it is more confusing now with “standard” Games Workshop content than Imperial Armour content release by Forgeworld.

Ok well surely the units are still overpowered right? Not even close. The most powerful units are still “standard” Warhammer 40k units. I mean you only need to take a look at the Librarian Conclave for Space Marines, the Invisibility psychic power, the ease of getting 2+ rerollable invulnerable save units, or a unit of 3 Super Heavy Walkers that can all shoot their weapons at different units and then charge any one of the units they shot at.

None of the arguments for not allowing Imperial Armour that I hear are even close to valid anymore, so why don’t we allow it in Victoria? I think it is the fear of change, but lets put that aside for the moment and move on to the FAQ.

The ITC FAQ, what does it change?

Every event or social game you have ever played in has likely used at least 1 FAQ. Games Workshop recently released the official versions of their latest FAQ documents, with wide spread rule changes (erratas) and answers to “common” questions. The ITC FAQ is really not all that different, or is it.

Well the ITC FAQ is one designed by the team over at Frontline Gaming, however for the big ticket items they poll the gaming community. So instead of making a ruling on what they think the rule is saying, or making a ruling based on what they think is or isn’t fair, they leave it up to the community. Now in Australia that hasn’t been all that successful in the past, our votes have been lucky to crack 100 players.

So whats in it? Well the document is 24 pages long, which is actually pretty short for a comprehensive FAQ. I won’t go through all of it here, as you can have a good read over it here, I will instead just go over some of the more big ticket items.

  • Changes to Invisibility: Invisibility is one of the most busted psychic powers in the game. ITC have changed it so instead of making snap shots against the unit as the psychic power reads, instead you are treated as ballistic skill 1 and you hit on 5’s in Melee. This means you can fire blasts and flamer templates against them, and you increase the potential for damaging them in combat.
  • You can Look Out Sir Stomps of a 6: Games Workshop recently came out with an FAQ stating that you can look out sir the 2-5 result of a Stomp attack, however the result of a 6 you cannot. The ITC polled the community, and the majority decided that it was too powerful and that you would be allowed to Look Out Sir the 6 result as well.
  • Changes to 2+ Rerollable Saves: Any saving throw of a 2+ that can be rerolled, if the first roll is failed, the reroll is only successful on a 4+ instead. So that turns a 1 in 36 chance into a 1 in 12 chance, which is quite obviously significantly less powerful.
  • Changes to ranged Destroyer Weapons (combat ones remain the same): They simply changed the 6 roll on the Destroyer Weapon table, making it 3 Wounds/Hull Points instead of D6+6. Quite obviously reducing the effects of rolling a couple of 6’s.

So instead of restricting the units you can take in an ITC format event (with the exception of a couple of IA units) they restrict the power of the game by changing rules.

ITC as a Ranking System is nothing to be scared of

The ITC Ranking System allows for players to have their event results accumulated and then ranked against all the other players around the world, which offers a number of really great benefits to both tournament players and tournament organisers alike. An event does not need to use the ITC format/rules set to qualify for the ITC Rankings. You can simply take your existing event, make absolutely no changes to it, and it can qualify for Rankings.

How does it help ALL tournament players and tournament organisers?

Well there are some people that just don’t care about rankings, especially world wide rankings, and you know what, that is perfectly fine. But what ITC rankings bring to the table is extra players.

There are other players out there that do care where they sit in the rankings. Some just want to be the best in their club, others may be more interested in having the best results for a given faction, or maybe some have aspirations to be “the best in the world”, and you know what this is also perfectly fine.

So how does ITC rankings help out players who don’t care about rankings? Well it is actually fairly simple. If a player wants to do well at the rankings, they have to attend quite a few events. So to get those sweet sweet ITC points they may need to travel to events like Cancon (ACT) or Terracon (SA) or vice versa some of the non Victorian lads and ladettes would need to make the trip over to events like Eastcon or the Assault (previously known as the Hunt). So with players who may not have previously made the trip to an event interstate now having extra incentive to get on a plane, train or just in the car and cross the border, the tournament attendance increases.

So while the bigger the event gets doesn’t necessarily mean a greater player experience, there is definitely a correlation. With more players means more entry fees, and with more entry fees means the TO’s can do bigger and better things. The more entry fees there are the more “left field” prizes/acknowledgements there are. You just need to take a look at the biggest event in Australia, Arc40k. It has 130-150 players, which is massive fore Australian events. It has the budget to be able to provide a plethora of prizes and acknowledge the people at the event that have gone the extra mile, you couldn’t do this as easily without the larger attendance.

Rankings isn’t something new though…

Australia has had a number of ranking systems over the years. I know when I first started playing competitively there was a website called RankingsHQ. Now almost all the events in Australia were in there, and it too allowed you to see how you were matched up against other players in the world and within Australia. RankingsHQ was used for masters event invites, picking teams for events like the Australasian Team Challenge and the European Team Championships, as well as just regular bragging rights.

So if this is nothing new, will ITC rankings really increase tournament numbers? I can confidently say, from experience in this area, Yes! Rankings may not be something new, however it has been missing for a number of years now. There are players out there that will actively travel to other states to pick up their rankings points.

So wrap this up for us Difsta

What does an ITC Ranked event mean for me as a player who doesn’t care about rankings? Absolutely nothing.

Does an event using the ITC Tournament Format mean more powerful armies compared to what the VMG’ers are used to? Yes, definitely. Victoria traditionally plays tournaments with a composition score, and as such the strength of the armies are reduced. However the lists wont be as strong as pure “no comp” due to the army building restrictions and FAQ.

Which format do I prefer, ITC or Comp (whether that be panel or community comp)? There is enough room for both, we don’t need to say one or the other. Variety is the best thing for a tournament scene in my opinion, and ITC is just another option available to Tournament Organisers.

Lets see how LVO pans out for me and I can give my thoughts on all this when I get back! – Massaen